Telesat said that an independent technical study, led by members of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has concluded that the design of Telesat’s global LEO constellation is far more efficient compared to those of OneWeb and SpaceX. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018112901

ABB Measurement & Analytics Business Unit in Québec City, Canada has signed a contract with Montréal-based company GHGSat to manufacture and test the optical sensor onboard the company’s third microsatellite (GHGSat-C2) aimed at monitoring greenhouse gases (GHG). http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018112902

Boeing has been awarded US$383 million from the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center for the Protected Tactical Enterprise Service (PTES) tactical satellite communications system. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018112903

SpaceX has delayed the launch of Spaceflight’s Smallsat Express (aka SSO-A) from Vandenberg Air Force Base until early December 2018, owing to high-altitude winds. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018112800

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has detected systemic legal violations in the work of State Space Corporation, Roskosmos, between 2017 and the first half of 2018. In total, 1,700 violations had been revealed, Official Spokesman Alexander Kurennoy said, adding that 16 criminal cases had been launched. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018112802

For its 10th launch of 2018, the sixth of the year using an Ariane 5 vehicle, Arianespace will orbit GSAT-11 for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and GEO-KOMPSAT-2A for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018112700

NASA’s InSight has sent signals to Earth indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface. NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018112701

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a contract to Telesat under which Telesat will undertake investigations that could lead to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) making greater use of commercial low Earth orbit satellite constellations, such as Telesat’s LEO system, for DoD’s future space-based communications. http://www.sat-nd.com/archive/?id=2018112702